Spending Money in Germany
 

Our teenager is going a language school in Munich this summer. What is the easiest, safest way to handle money? Debit card? Credit card?

Open up a chequing account in his name and give him a debit card. You can monitor his spending and to some degree control it and when he starts running out of funds, you simply make a bank deposit which he can use for purchases or to draw cash from an ATM.<BR><BR>You could give him a credit card but then you have little control over what he is spending. Of course there are student credit cards with very low credit lines to keep his spending in line.<BR><BR>The debit card, however, works fine. Again you have complete control as you can monitor it from home.

XXX, I second your advise! When my children grew up and went to college I opened a joint account with each one and it worked this way: mom made deposits, children used their debit cards. Joint account in both names - this helps me to control the balance on accounts.

Credit cards are not widely used in Germany, so I agree with the other posters.<BR>Harezr

Sorry but I have no idea: What is a debit card???? If I sent a teenanger from Europe to Europe I would open a bank account which could be acessed from anywhere by Eurocard. Teenies don't usually have credit cards. How old is your teenie???? Also get him a cell phone.

Kathy,<BR><BR>Chances are your kid already has all he/she needs:<BR><BR>1) an ATM card (Cirrus or Plus logo). Check what fees your bank charges for international withdrawals though. You might want to comparison shop.<BR><BR>2)a CREDIT card (preferably Visa or MC, NOT Discover) for emergencies such as the ATMs being dead or the ATM card getting lost/stolen (these often take longer to replace).<BR><BR>Do NOT get a debit card - you can read on this forum how dangerous this is (not just abroad)!<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR>Andre

By the way, Munich and Hamburg are the two most expensive cities in Germany.